This invention relates generally to portable radiotelephones for use in a wireless communication system, and more particularly to a personal communicator that has radiotelephone and data-message handling capabilities.
In today""s competitive business environment, it is becoming increasingly important for business people to have access to a personal communications network at all times. Accordingly, portable radiotelephones, such as cellular telephones and cordless telephones, have become commonplace.
One popular variety of radiotelephone has two main housing elements connected by a hinge, allowing the telephone to be folded into a compact xe2x80x9cclosedxe2x80x9d configuration when it is not in use, and to be unfolded into an xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d configuration when it is in use. The larger of the two housing elements, hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cbody portion,xe2x80x9d normally contains most of the electronics required for operation of the radiotelephone. The smaller housing element, hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cflip element,xe2x80x9d normally contains at most a microphone and a ringing element. Radiotelephones of this type are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,845,772 and 5,185,790.
Radiotelephones of the flip element type provide a compact means to access voice communications virtually anywhere. Often, however, business people have the need to access information that is not available over the telephone or that cannot be easily or efficiently communicated in a telephone conversation. For example, a person may have the need to send or receive text messages, access remote databases, or access a directory of addresses and telephone numbers of business associates. Heretofore, radiotelephones of the flip element type have not provided a satisfactory means for their users to access, send or receive non-voice information. Consequently, radiotelephone users have had to make use of separate devices for these purposes, such as facsimile machines, portable personal computers, electronic personal organizers and personal digital assistants.
While some radiotelephones of the flip element type have included a visual display, such as the telephones disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 298,036 and 337,763, these radiotelephones have heretofore incorporated the display on the body portion of the device. Because much of the surface area of the body portion is used for various required elements of the telephone (such as a keypad, an earpiece, on/off and volume switches, etc.), the display is typically made small in order to preserve the compact size of the unit. Consequently, only a small amount of information can be presented to the user at a time, limiting the use of the display to relatively rudimentary functions such as the display of a single telephone number. Such small displays cannot be used effectively for more advanced communications functions that require presentation of relatively large amounts of visual information.
Therefore, a new radiotelephone is needed that provides a larger visual display with enhanced features, and the capability to send, receive, and store non-voice information.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a portable radiotelephone having a body portion, a telephone keypad incorporated into the body portion, a flip element, and a display incorporated into the flip element so that the user of the radiotelephone can send, receive, and view data messages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable radiotelephone having a body portion with a first built-in display, and a flip element portion with a second built-in display, wherein at least one of the two displays is touch-sensitive.
Accordingly, these and other objects are realized in the present invention which encompasses a portable radiotelephone (referred to herein as a xe2x80x9cpersonal communicatorxe2x80x9d) that has a display built into the flip element. In a first embodiment, the personal communicator has a single display that is disposed on the flip element and a conventional telephone keypad that is located on the body portion. The personal communicator further comprises memory and processing circuitry to permit the execution of conventional communications application programs. The display may be either touch-sensitive or non-touch-sensitive, and is preferably activated when the flip element is folded to an open position.
The display may be used to display text or graphics that is received by the personal communicator under the control of a communications application program. For example, the display may be used to display short message service (SMS), beeper, E-Mail or facsimile messages. The display may also be used to display status information for communications application programs. The display may also be used to permit the user to select among a plurality of menu options. For embodiments that use a touch-sensitive display, menu items can be selected by pushing on selected areas of the screen. For embodiments that do not use a touch-sensitive display, menu items can be selected by pushing keys that are provided on the flip element adjacent to the display, the functions of which may be indicated on the display. The telephone keypad may be used to place telephone calls over a cellular network, and may be used in conjunction with communications application programs.
In a second embodiment, the personal communicator has a first display on the flip element, and has a second display on the body portion (in place of the conventional telephone keypad of the first embodiment). One or both displays may be touch-sensitive. A telephone keypad can be displayed on the touch-sensitive display (or displays) under the control of software, to permit the user to dial a telephone number without the need for a push-button keypad. The displayed keypad can be removed from the screen when not in use, providing a larger total display area for viewing messages.